Direct communication involves establishing a radio connection between two devices without transiting via an access network of a cellular communication network. Direct communication may be used to establish communication between two User Equipment Devices (UEs) which may or may not be out of network coverage, or may enable one device to act as a relay for another device, providing access to network services to a device which is out of network coverage. In the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), direct communication is enabled via Proximity Services (ProSe), as set out in TS 33.303 and other standard documents. The following discussion focuses on 3GPP ProSe but is equally applicable to other direct communication technologies.
ProSe consists of two main elements: ProSe Direct Discovery, involving the network assisted discovery of users with a desire to communicate who are in close physical proximity, and ProSe Direct Communication, in which direct communication between such users is facilitated with or without supervision from the network. The ProSe direct communication path may use Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) or Wireless Local Area Network direct (WLAN direct) radio technology.
FIG. 1 illustrates a reference ProSe architecture, according to which two ProSe-enabled UEs 2 may establish a direct communication path between them. Communication between the devices takes place over the PC5 interface, with each device able to communicate with a ProSe Function 4 in the cellular network over the PC3 interface, and with a ProSe application server 6 over a PC1 interface. ProSe direct communication may also involve a ProSe “UE-to-Network Relay”, according to which a device, which may itself be a UE, may act as a relay between the E-UTRAN and a UE which is out of the coverage area of the E-UTRAN. This arrangement is illustrated in FIG. 2, with remote UE 2 obtaining access to the E-UTRAN via ProSe direct communication with a ProSe UE-to-Network Relay 8. ProSe direct communication is particularly advantageous for public safety communication, providing communication services for the emergency services and other public safety bodies. The example of FIG. 2 illustrates the ProSe enabled remote UE 2 communicating with a Public Safety Application Server 10 via the E-UTRAN and EPC, which the remote UE 2 can access via ProSe direct communication with the ProSe UE-to-Network Relay 8.
In order to secure communication between two devices using ProSe Direct Communication, a shared key may be used when communicating over the PC5 interface. Standard procedure is to pre-configure appropriate shared keys into ProSe enabled devices. However, pre-configuring appropriate shared keys to enable ProSe Direct Communication with every other device that an enabled device may wish to communicate with may be extremely challenging. A single ProSe enabled UE may wish to communicate with a range of different ProSe enabled UEs, and with many different UE-to-Network Relays serving different cells within the network. In addition, two ProSe enabled UEs, or a UE and UE-to-Network Relay, wishing to communicate may be served by different Home PLMNs, or one or both devices may roam into a new PLMN, further complicating the task of pre-configuring shared keys. Pre-configuring shared keys in all of the relevant ProSe enabled devices to enable all of the possible communication paths that may be desired is therefore an extremely complex process.